‘M*A*S*H’ and ‘Dragnet’ Star Harry Morgan Dead at 96 [VIDEO]

One of television’s most prolific and longest working actors has died.

Harry Morgan, best remembered for playing Joe Friday’s partner on “Dragnet” and the kindly military surgeon Col. Sherman T. Potter on the hit sitcom ‘M*A*S*H,’ passed away Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96 years old.

Morgan, a native of Detroit, made his big screen debut in the 1943 western with Henry Fonda in ‘The Ox-Bow Incident’ and found regular work in the film industry. He went on to appear in such classic dramas as Gary Cooper’s ‘High Noon,’ Spencer Tracy’s ‘Inherit the Wind’ and the 1962 iconic western ‘How the West Was Won’ as Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

His work in television kept him in primetime roles both big and small for almost 35 years, starting with the role of Bill Gannon in the 1967 cop drama ‘Dragnet,’ the partner of by-the-book cop Joe Friday played by Jack Webb, a role he revised in the 1987 big screen remake starring Dan Aykroyd.

Morgan’s tenure on ‘M*A*S*H’ began with a role as an insane general in the show’s third season. His performance earned him an Emmy nomination and, after McLean Stevenson left the series, Morgan joined the cast in the fourth season as Colonel Potter.

Morgan received nine Emmy nominations for the role and won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy, Variety or Music Series in 1980. He resumed the role for the short-lived spinoff ‘After M*A*S*H.’